ABC Releases Documented Proof Trump Never Separated Himself From His Businesses

ABC Releases Documented Proof Trump Never Separated Himself From His Businesses

Donald Trump never separated himself from his business interests. A new report by the Associated Press reveals that President Trump retains control of his business through a trust controlled by one of his children and a longtime Trump Company executive.

ABC News explains:Trump is the sole beneficiary of the Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust, which is tied to his Social Security number as the taxpayer identification number, according to documents published online by the investigative nonprofit ProPublica. And Trump can revoke the trust, which was amended three days before his inauguration, at any time.

The details about the trust were included in a Jan. 27 letter to the Washington liquor board that notes Donald Trump Jr. and Allen Weisselberg are its new trustees. The Trump trust holds a liquor license for the hotel that opened last fall in the federally owned Old Post Office building. The trust contains a mix of cash from Trump’s sales of stock investments over the summer and his physical and intellectual properties, such as Trump Tower in New York, Mar-a-Lago in Florida and branding rights.

The AP reporters wrote that “Trump himself still financially benefits from [the arrangement],Past precedent has been for presidents to sell off their holdings and place the cash into a truly blind trust — not one overseen by a family member — before taking office, even though there’s no legal requirement to do so.”

As you can see from the ProPublica document copy below, the Trust was amended on January 17th, 2017 and Donald J. Trump still has full control:

Ethics advisors to the Bush and Obama administration say the arrangement is “nakedly unconstitutional.” Of course Trump and his attorney argued in his only press conference as President-Elect that because he would be President, he wouldn’t have any conflicts of interest.